Matt's is setup real similar to yours only shifted to the right and I don't believe he used the mounting bracket so it sits flush to the console.

Just out of curiousity I shot off an email to Yaesu about whether they ever plan to backlight the buttons on the FT-8800 and the answer I received back was "I have not heard of any plans to change the FT-8800".

The price difference is significant between the Kenwood and Yaesu only if you start throwing in the separation kits for the panel and the microphone. Those alone raise the price quite a bit. I know that you can probably make your own extensions so that may no be as big of an issue but that is one of the attractions of the FT-8800 for me because I have GCs for Ham City (I know, bad that I'm not buying local ) and the FT-8800 comes with the separation kit for $340...Throw in $10-$15 for S&H and I'm done.

With the Kenwood it would be $360 for the rig, $42 for the separation kit, $65 for the extension cables, and $36 for the programming cable...$502.80 plus about $10-$15 for S&H.

I think I'm going to have to learn how to use the FT-8800 in the dark, or come up with a small LED with diffused lighting that I can mount above the panel that will come on with my lights and light up the panel

One side note on the dual band discussion. I love the capability on my HT but I've found that I get confused about which "side" I'm hearing the discussion on. Like when I'm listening to the repeater and .460 and hear a call. If I don't look quick I miss which freq the call was on...Probably would be easier with the FT-8800 panel mounted vs. having the HT just sitting on the console to see which is which. I also noticed on the runs with the CB and Ham on it was hard to discern whether the person was talking on the Ham or the CB if I couldn't look (which sometimes you can when you are wheeling ). Part of that is probably due to the proximity of the CB speaker (on the unit) and the HT speaker (in the mic) to each other.

edit: I need to learn to type shorter responses...I started this before Matt posted up